Saturday we had our monthly family birthday party to celebrate birthdays for November. Tobias turned 4 last week, Caleb turns 9 later this month, and we also had a cousin and aunt with birthdays we celebrated. We did some projects around the house today as well.
Sunday was a special sacrament meeting where the primary children (ages 3-11) share their testimonies through song and word with the congregation. It is always sweet to listen to the children singing and speaking. Once home we had lunch and our usual afternoon medical care for Mason. Then I took a nap. It was so nice. We had an odd experience with a woman who tried stealing some of our children's shoes from our enclosed porch, which led to us clearing all the shoes from the porch for now. In the evening we had a ham dinner and lots of talking together around the table. I love seeing the crazy silly discussions that happen around the table at meal times.
Monday was Veteran's Day, but we chose to have school and take Wednesday off instead. It fit our schedule better with a several hour doctor's appointment on the calendar. The morning began with new Math U See lessons for everyone:
- Algebra 1 - Solving simultaneous equations with graphing - Joseph and Emma
- PreAlgebra - Solve for an unknown with Multiplicative Inverse - Daniel
- Epsilon - Reducing fractions using prime factorization - Oliver
- Gamma - Skip count by 6, equivalent fractions - Caleb
- Beta - Skip count by 10, Dimes, Pennies - Mason
- Alpha - Adding Doubles, Mental Math - Samuel
Other lessons today included:
- Reading independently or aloud to me depending on age/reading ability.
- Handwriting (print or cursive)
- Biology - Cellular biology, aerobic respiration cycles including Krebs cycle.
- History - The Aztec civilization - we learned about their history, engineering feats such as floating farms and building a city in the middle of a lake, religion, calendar stone, and interactions and conquering by Spain. We watched a short video as part of this lesson as well.
- Language Arts - depending on the child assignments today ranged from sentence dictation to sentence diagramming, reading a chapter in Little Lord Fauntleroy, narration, brainstorming story starters for man versus nature, man versus man or society, and man versus self, grammar cards, poetry memorization, geography cards, and spelling.
After our usual afternoon medical care I pulled out a new game for the kids. I found a free printable online for a game called 'Shut the Box'. It is a fun way to practice addition without it feeling like work. You can get the free printables from this post at Teaching with Jillian Starr. Basically, a child rolls a pair of dice. They add the dice and then can use any mix of numbers that make up that amount and cross them off their game board. For example if a child rolls 8 they could choose to cross of 8. Or 7 and 1. Or 6 and 2. Or 5 and 3. Or 1, 2, and 5. Or 1, 3, and 4. There are so many possibilities, and the older they get the more they will see. Today I had kids from age 6 to 12 playing together using two player boards in dry erase sleeves.
After dinner we rotated the toys from the living room with toys stored in the attic. I'm now watching the five youngest kids playing with dinosaurs and mega blocks. Two older kids are writing (both are working on books/fanfiction for fun), and two kids are playing together in the boys' bedroom. That means I have a few minutes to jot these notes and check my email.
Tuesday was a relaxed morning of school. Caleb was fascinated with learning about the Inca civilization. We decided it would be hard to be an Incan messenger because they didn't have a written language, so all messages had to be memorized and then runners passed it from station to station along the Inca Trail.
Wednesday Mason had several xrays and an appointment with his orthopedic surgeon in the morning. In the end, he still needs to wait for his body to have some growth and finish correcting the bones in his right leg before we remove the plate, and the left leg doesn't have to get a plate in just yet. His scoliosis is stable, improved a few degrees. Grandma watched the rest of the kids while Mason and I were at his appointments. In the afternoon Tobias started getting sick. He's my 4 year old tornado, usually running, playing, and busy. On this afternoon he curled up in a blanket and just laid on the couch for hours with a fever. Poor guy didn't feel like eating at all. In the evening my youth had church activities.
Thursday school was the first thing on the agenda as usual. Tobias woke up and felt better as the day went on. In history we learned about some of the Spanish conquistadors. It was an interesting discussion that there are always two or more sides to historical events as we tried to imagine things from both the Spaniard's and the native tribes' perspectives. The older kids had a bit of discussion about motivations for different explorers/conquistadors, human sacrifice in some religions (Aztec in particular), how tribes surrounding the Aztecs banded together with Cortez to help defeat the Aztecs, and issues that were unexpected like how diseases from the Europeans were devastating to some of the native populations of the Americas who did not have the same immunities. At physical therapy today we reported on the surgeon appointment and started working on a new plan because of the things we can't do until surgeries happen (like using standing braces and a walker). For dinner Caleb and Mason helped me make homemade pizzas. Evening was family time and a video chat with Makayla. I rarely remember to mention these, but we video chat at least once a week, often twice. We are all counting down to seeing her for Thanksgiving!
Friday kicked off with school work as usual. Most of us took turns playing the piano and singing together. Joseph and Emma saw an invitation to join the church Christmas choir and so they'll be doing that for the next 5 weeks. I haven't decided if I'll be joining them or just providing rides to and from practice. We had some fun discussions about goal setting and are all looking forward to a broadcast for children and youth this coming Sunday about the changes coming in January to the church activity programs for ages 8-18.
In all, it was a peaceful week of learning and family time. Does it ever get boring reading that? I think it might, but that is our reality. We are blessed beyond measure to spend more than the average amount of time together, thanks to homeschooling.
After dinner we rotated the toys from the living room with toys stored in the attic. I'm now watching the five youngest kids playing with dinosaurs and mega blocks. Two older kids are writing (both are working on books/fanfiction for fun), and two kids are playing together in the boys' bedroom. That means I have a few minutes to jot these notes and check my email.
Tuesday was a relaxed morning of school. Caleb was fascinated with learning about the Inca civilization. We decided it would be hard to be an Incan messenger because they didn't have a written language, so all messages had to be memorized and then runners passed it from station to station along the Inca Trail.
Wednesday Mason had several xrays and an appointment with his orthopedic surgeon in the morning. In the end, he still needs to wait for his body to have some growth and finish correcting the bones in his right leg before we remove the plate, and the left leg doesn't have to get a plate in just yet. His scoliosis is stable, improved a few degrees. Grandma watched the rest of the kids while Mason and I were at his appointments. In the afternoon Tobias started getting sick. He's my 4 year old tornado, usually running, playing, and busy. On this afternoon he curled up in a blanket and just laid on the couch for hours with a fever. Poor guy didn't feel like eating at all. In the evening my youth had church activities.
Thursday school was the first thing on the agenda as usual. Tobias woke up and felt better as the day went on. In history we learned about some of the Spanish conquistadors. It was an interesting discussion that there are always two or more sides to historical events as we tried to imagine things from both the Spaniard's and the native tribes' perspectives. The older kids had a bit of discussion about motivations for different explorers/conquistadors, human sacrifice in some religions (Aztec in particular), how tribes surrounding the Aztecs banded together with Cortez to help defeat the Aztecs, and issues that were unexpected like how diseases from the Europeans were devastating to some of the native populations of the Americas who did not have the same immunities. At physical therapy today we reported on the surgeon appointment and started working on a new plan because of the things we can't do until surgeries happen (like using standing braces and a walker). For dinner Caleb and Mason helped me make homemade pizzas. Evening was family time and a video chat with Makayla. I rarely remember to mention these, but we video chat at least once a week, often twice. We are all counting down to seeing her for Thanksgiving!
Friday kicked off with school work as usual. Most of us took turns playing the piano and singing together. Joseph and Emma saw an invitation to join the church Christmas choir and so they'll be doing that for the next 5 weeks. I haven't decided if I'll be joining them or just providing rides to and from practice. We had some fun discussions about goal setting and are all looking forward to a broadcast for children and youth this coming Sunday about the changes coming in January to the church activity programs for ages 8-18.
In all, it was a peaceful week of learning and family time. Does it ever get boring reading that? I think it might, but that is our reality. We are blessed beyond measure to spend more than the average amount of time together, thanks to homeschooling.
What a blessing to get a nap! How weird to have someone try to steal shoes! I hope that if that woman needed shoes for her kids, she can find a resource for them. I would love to be able to say week after week that it was a peaceful week of learning and family time. I hope it never gets boring for you or anyone! Though I do have to say that you have a gift for feeling peace in that you had medical issues and illness thrown in to the mix along with regular life. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd event with the woman and shoes. I wonder how she even realized there were shoes on your porch. I hope she finds what she needs in a more honest way than stealing. I am glad you had a peaceful week. I bet you all can't wait to have your daughter home.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn